The  Training 
of  a Race 

An  address  delivered  at  Des  Moines,  Iowa,  May  24th,  1912 
comemorating  the  50th  Anniversary  of  the  work 
of  the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission 
Society  among  the  Negroes 


Charles  L.  White 


The  American  Baptist  Home 
Mission  Society 

23  East  26th  Street,  New  York 


The  Training  of  a Race 

Charles  L.  White 


SOUTHERN  PLANTS 

EN,  inflamed  by  the  passions  of 
war,  see  through  a glass  dark- 
ly, but  when  fifty  years  have 
subdued  their  emotions  they 
behold  the  far-off  events  of  the 
struggle  with  the  poise  of  can- 
dor. History  cannot  be  writ- 
ten till  hatred  is  dead. 

The  struggles  that  led  to  the 
emancipation  of  the  slaves  on 
New  Year’s  Day,  1863,  and 
later  culminated  in  the  perpet- 
uation of  the  Union,  left  es- 
trangements which  only  Chris- 
tianity can  heal.  And  yet  under  influences  that  we 
shall  trace  as  we  proceed,  swords  have  been  melted 
into  ploughshares  in  the  furnace  of  affliction;  and 
where  the  thorns  of  hatred  grew,  love  and  peace 
are  yielding  their  happy  harvest. 

We  need  make  no  serious  mention  of  our  pas- 
sage at  arms,  when  brave  men  in  both  North  and 
South  amazed  one  another  and  the  world  by  their 
valorous  achievements,  fighting  each  one  for  a 
cause  which  he  justified  by  reason  and  revelation; 
and  we  shall  pass  over  in  silence  those  regrettable 
years  of  reconstruction  when  the  hatreds  of 
war  were  perpetuated  in  the  arena  of  politics. 
Through  those  years,  while  we  blundered  upward 
along  the  narrow  path  of  progress,  the  reunited 
nation  sorely  missed  the  steady  hand,  the  judicial 
mind  and  the  noble  heart  of  that  man  who  re- 


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ceived  from  God  so  much  of  the  divine  wisdom  to 
supplement  the  knowledge  of  his  generation;  the 
man  whose  great  soul  was  reflected  in  the  com- 
passion that  breathed  through  his  messages  and 
through  his  immortal  address  at  Gettysburg,  and 
whose  blood  was  the  last  to  wet  the  altar  of  our 
national  sacrifice.  He  was  the  elect  of  God,  raised 
up  and  fashioned  for  the  salvation  of  a distracted 
country,  and  the  thoughtful  people  of  every  com- 
munity in  our  land,  and  those  who  dwell  beyond 
the  seas,  venerate  to-day  the  memory  of  ABRA- 
HAM LINCOLN. 

It  is  vain  for  us  to  imagine  what  dangers  might 
have  been  escaped  if  he  as  our  elder  statesman 
could  have  directed  the  social,  political  and  eco- 
nomic reconstruction  of  the  South.  But  if  he 
could  now  return  to  that  land  where  harvests 
wave  over  the  fields  then  wasted  by  war,  white 
men  and  black  would  alike  honor  and  love  him. 

Where  the  Path  Began 

Let  us  in  our  survey  walk  down  the  five  decades 
that  stretch  from  February  27th,  1862,  when  Rev. 
Howard  Osgood  returned  from  Fortress  Monroe 
and  reported  the  result  of  his  investigations  to 
the  Executive  Committee  of  the  Home  Mission 
Society.  For  it  was  fifty  years  ago  this  very  month 
that  our  fathers,  assembled  in  the  historic  meeting 
house  in  Providence  and  listened  to  the  following 
report:  “RESOLVED:  That  we  recommend  the 

Society  to  take  immediate  steps  to  supply  with 
Christian  instruction,  by  means  of  missionaries 
and  teachers,  the  emancipated  slaves — whether  in 
the  District  of  Columbia  or  in  other  places  held 
by  our  forces — and  also  to  inaugurate  a system 
of  operations  for  carrying  the  Gospel  alike  to  free 
and  bond  throughout  the  whole  Southern  section 
of  our  country,  so  fast  and  so  far  as  the  progress 
of  our  arms  and  the  restoration  of  law  and  order 
shall  open  the  way.” 

On  the  same  day  Rev.  Isaac  W.  Brinkerhoff  and 
Rev.  Jonathan  W.  Horton  were  commissioned  to 


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labor  among  the  Negroes  on  the  Island  of  St. 
Helena,  S.  C.,  and  on  September  the  16th  Dr.  Peck, 
for  many  years  the  Corresponding  Secretary  of  the 
Missionary  Union,  volunteered  his  services  and 
was  commissioned  to  Beaufort.  The  work  pros- 
pered, and  the  colored  church  in  Beaufort  in  1807 
reported  4,000  members,  divided  into  four  par- 
ishes, each  having  a preacher  who  co-operated 
with  a pastor. 

Early  in  1863  Rev.  H.  C.  Fish,  of  New  Jersey, 
on  behalf  of  the  Board,  examined  the  condition 
of  the  freedmen  in  Washington  and  Alexandria. 
His  report  stirred  the  hearts  of  Northern  Baptists, 
for  he  declared,  “I  found  them  helpless,  hopeless, 
friendless;  these  poor  creatures  appeal  to  us  most 
loudly  for  assistance!  Not  a man  in  the  whole 
camp  to  care  for  their  souls!  Not  a teacher  to 
instruct  them  even  in  the  lowest  branch  of  learn- 
ing! Few,  if  any,  missionary  fields,  as  we  be- 
lieve, make  a stronger  demand  upon  our  denom- 
ination to-day  than  that  here  indicated.  Difficult 
indeed  is  the  problem.  What  are  we  to  do  for 
the  freedmen  who  are  being  thrown  in  increasing 
numbers  upon  our  hands?  One  thing  is  certain, 
they  must  not  be  neglected.  And  upon  whom  else 
so  clearly  rests  this  obligation  as  upon  Northern 
Baptists?” 


Another  Step  Forward 

In  1867  at  the  Annual  Meeting  another  step  in 
the  policy  of  the  Society  was  taken,  and  one  which 
under  the  constant  blessing  of  God  has  endured  to 
the  present  time.  This  policy  is  reflected  in  these 
words:  “We  must  give  assistance  to  our  mission- 
aries in  the  South,  to  engage  in  such  instruction  of 
the  colored  people  as  will  enable  them  to  read  the 
Bible  and  to  become  self-supporting  and  self-di- 
recting churches.  The  Board  will  gladly  receive 
all  moneys  contributed  and  designated  for  this 
purpose,  and  appropriate  the  same  agreeably  to 
the  wishes  of  the  donors;  the  moneys  thus  desig- 
nated to  be  termed  the  Freedmen’s  Fund.” 


5 


This  action  of  the  board  thrilled  the  Baptists  of 
New  England  and  in  the  First  Baptist  Church  in 
Boston,  October  36th  of  the  same  year,  the  New 
England  State  Convention  appointed  a Freedmen’s 
Committee,  to  be  called  the  New  England  Freed- 
men’s Aid  Commission,  to  advise  and  co-operate 
with  the  Home  Mission  Board  in  raising  funds  and 
in  sending  out  and  recommending  suitable  persons 
for  assistants  in  the  South. 

Everywhere  interest  deepened.  Up  to  April, 
1864,  several  additional  missionaries  and  fourteen 
assistants  were  appointed  for  the  Southern  field. 
In  1864  mission  work  was  conducted  at  Norfolk, 
Va.;  Alexandria;  Washington,  D.  C. ; Beaufort; 
Memphis,  Nashville,  Island  No.  10,  Tenn. ; and  in 
New  Orleans. 

In  May,  1865,  the  Society  held  its  annual  meet- 
ing in  St.  Louis.  The  war  was  over.  At  that 
time  President  Martin  B.  Anderson,  of  New  York, 
said: 

“It  has  been  asked,  ‘What  will  you  do  with  the 
NegroesP’  God  does  not  require  of  us  an  answer 
to  this.  Our  question  is,  ‘What  will  we  do  FOB 
the  Negro P’  God  will  tell  us,  when  it  pleaseth  Him, 
what  to  do  with  the  Negro.  Let  us  do  our  work, 
and  leave  the  rest  to  God.  Let  us  organize  them 
into  churches  and  Sunday  Schools;  teach  them  to 
labor,  and  to  make  of  themselves  men  in  every 
sense.  God  will  do  the  rest.” 

The  Annual  Keport  of  the  Board  showed  that 
$4,978.69  had  been  received  for  the  Freedman’s 
Fund  and  the  presence  of  68  missionaries  in 
twelve  States. 

That  year  the  designated  funds  for  the  Freed- 
men  amounted  to  $21,386.26,  and  the  total  ex- 
penditure was  $40,000. 

“That  year  it  was  decided  that  the  most  direct, 
accessible  and  effective  way  of  teaching  the  mass 
of  colored  people  is  by  teaching  the  colored  min- 
istry.” It  was  further  declared  that  the  irregu- 
lar instruction  imparted  by  missionaries  while  im- 
portant was  entirely  inadequate,  and  that  estab- 


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lished  Institutions  were  demanded.  In  this  year, 
therefore,  the  Society  addressed  itself  to  the  Chris- 
tian education  of  the  colored  people  and  the  crea- 
tion of  leadership  without  which  the  Negro  race 
would  never  have  reached  the  improved  condition 
which  it  now  enjoys. 

Laying  Foundations 

In  April,  1867,  we  began  in  earnest  the  purchase 
of  land,  the  erection  of  buildings  and  the  securing 
of  suitable  equipment.  Schools  were  established  in 
Washington,  Nashville,  New  Orleans,  Raleigh, 
Richmond,  Alexandria,  Culpepper,  Fredericksburg, 
Williamsburg,  Petersburg,  Murfreesboro,  Albany 
and  Ashland,  some  of  them  with  a view  to  per- 
manency. In  that  year  alone  more  than  300 
preachers  received  instruction,  ministers'  and  dea- 
cons’ institutes  were  held,  59  teachers  were  em- 
ployed in  day  schools  for  the  education  of  the 
youth,  and  6,136  pupils  were  instructed.  As  the 
result  of  the  year’s  work  many  were  converted 
and  a large  amount  of  missionary  labor  was  per- 
formed by  the  teachers  in  the  communities  in 
which  the  schools  were  located.  The  fruitage  of 
that  year  is  seen  also  in  the  commissioning  of  30 
colored  teachers  in  important  cities  and  districts 
in  the  Southern  States,  and  in  the  aiding  of  97 
colored  Baptist  churches  toward  the  support  of 
their  pastors  or  toward  securing  meeting  houses. 

In  1869  Dr.  J.  B.  Simmons  was  appointed  secre- 
tary for  the  Southern  field  and  the  work  of  the 
Society  among  the  Freedmen  was  thoroughly 
established. 

The  progress  of  our  work  from  1869  to  1882  in- 
cluded the  purchase  of  a site  for  Shaw  University 
in  1870  for  $15,000  and  a similar  expenditure  for 
the  Richmond  Institute  and  Benedict  College  cost- 
ing $10,000  and  $16,000  respectively. 

In  1871  we  purchased  land  for  Wayland  Semi- 
nary for  $3,375  and  began  to  erect  the  first  build- 
ing at  Shaw  University,  which  was  completed  the 
year  folowing,  at  a cost  of  $15,000. 


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The  grounds  and  buildings  of  Leland  University 
were  secured  between  the  years  1870  to  1874,  cost- 
ing $70,000,  and  in  the  latter  year  $25,000  were 
spent  for  Wayland  Seminary  and  $30,000  were 
used  for  the  purchase  of  a new  site  at  Nash- 
ville. Two  years  later,  in  1876,  at  Nashville, 
$45,000  were  expended  for  a building,  and  $30,- 
000  in  1874,  and  $25,000  for  the  Estey  Building 
for  Girls  at  Raleigh.  The  Natchez  School  prop- 
erty followed  in  1877  at  a cost  of  $5,000  and 
nearly  $12,000  for  repairs  and  improvements. 
The  chapel  and  dormitory  and  dining  hall  at 
Shaw  University  in  1879  cost  $6,000,  and  in  this 
year  the  Augusta  School  was  transferred  to  At- 
lanta, a site  was  secured  and  a building  was 
erected  at  a cost  of  $12,500.  We  also  purchased  a 
new  site  for  the  Richmond  Institute  for  $5,000, 
and  expended  $7,500  for  a dining  hall  at  Benedict 
College. 

In  1881  land  and  a building  for  Bishop  College 
in  Marshall,  Texas,  cost  $23,000  and  $5,000  were 
used  for  the  erection  of  a medical  dormitory  at 
Shaw  University.  The  following  year,  1882,  the 
expenditure  of  $12,000  provided  the  Medical 
School  Building  in  Raleigh,  and  $13,000  increased 
the  capacity  of  the  Girls’  Dormitory  in  Wayland 
Seminary.  Other  expenditures  of  that  year  at 
Jackson,  Miss.,  and  Atlanta,  Ga.,  made  the  total 
thus  far  expended  in  lands,  buildings  and  equip- 
ment, approximately  $400,000. 

In  addition  to  the  above  schools  the  Society 
adopted  in  1880  the  Normal  and  Theological 
School  established  in  Selma,  Ala.;  in  1880  opened 
the  school  at  Live  Oak,  Fla.;  in  1881  adopted  the 
Normal  and  Theological  Institute  started  two 
years  before  by  the  colored  people  in  Louisville, 
Kentucky. 

In  recent  years  the  sphere  of  work  has  been 
enlarged  by  assisting  certain  secondary  schools 
whose  curriculum  and  finances  are  supervised. 
The  encouragement  thus  given  has  imparted  new 
life  to  these  institutions.  The  results  have  been 
exceedingly  satisfactory. 


8 


The  Leonard  Medical  School  at  Shaw  Univer- 
sity has  grown  in  equipment  and  we  recently 
dedicated  one  of  the  best  hospitals  in  the  South. 

Two  Great  Schools 

Since  1882  two  great  institutions  have  been 
established.  Virginia  Union  University  at  Rich- 
mond for  men  and  Spelman  Seminary  at  Atlanta, 
Ga.,  for  girls.  The  former  stands  in  the  front 
rank  and  trains  in  its  summer  school  the  col- 
ored teachers  for  the  State  Examinations,  as 
the  University  of  Virginia  trains  the  whites  for 
the  same  purpose.  The  latter  is  the  best  school 
in  the  world  for  Negro  girls,  and  there  are  few 
girls’  schools  of  any  sort  that  surpass  it  in  excel- 
lence. It  bears  the  name  of  the  parents  of  Mrs. 
John  D.  Rockefeller,  whose  husband  made  pos- 
sible the  erection  of  the  extensive  plant.  This 
benefactor  of  the  Negro  race  whose  contributions 
to  charity,  medical  research,  education  and  religion 
have  made  so  many  human  undertakings  possible 
in  this  and  other  lands,  has  annually  made  sub- 
stantial gifts  to  Spelman  Seminary  and  to  our 
Society  for  its  work  in  the  South  and  elsewhere. 
As  we  contemplate  how  much  would  have  been 
left  unattempted  and  how  many  buildings  not 
erected,  if  he  had  withheld  his  gifts  for  our  Negro 
work,  we  wish  to  express  publicly  our  gratitude  to 
Mr.  Rockefeller  for  his  unremitting  interest  in 
the  Negro  race,  and  his  widespread  influence 
in  its  intellectual  and  spiritual  development. 

And  now  let  us  listen  as  we  call  the  roll  of  our 
Missionary  Schools,  and  as  it  is  spoken  please 
remember  that  some  of  them  have  been  shaping 
Christian  character  for  nearly  50  years — and  that 
last  year  7,000  pupils  were  trained  in  them  by  our 
consecrated  teachers. 

We  own  or  assist  13  major  and  11  secondary 
institutions.  The  13  major  schools  are  distrib- 
uted through  the  Southern  States  as  follows: 
Morehouse  College,  Atlanta,  Ga.;  Benedict  College, 
Columbia.  S.  C. ; Bishop  College,  Marshall,  Tex.; 


9 


Hartshorn  Memorial  College  and  Virginia  Union 
University  at  Richmond,  Va.;  Jackson  College, 
Jackson,  Miss.;  Shaw  University,  Raleigh,  N.  C. ; 
Spelman  Seminary,  Atlanta,  Ga.;  Alabama  Baptist 
College,  Selma,  Ala.;  State  University,  Louisville, 
Ky. ; and  the  Arkansas  Baptist  College  at  Little 
Rock;  Roger  Williams  University,  Nashville, 
Tenn. ; Storer  College,  Harper’s  Ferry,  W.  Va.  The 
secondary  schools  are:  Americus  Institute,  Amer- 
icus,  Ga. ; Coleman  Academy,  Gibsland,  La.;  Florida 
Baptist  Academy,  Jacksonville;  Thompson  Insti- 
tute, Lumberton,  N.  C. ; Houston  Academy,  Hous- 
ton, Tex.;  the  Howe  Bible  and  Normal  Institute, 
Memphis,  Tenn.;  Jeruel  Academy,  Athens,  Ga. ; the 
Tidewater  Institute,  Chesapeake,  Va.;  Walker  Bap- 
tist Academy,  Augusta,  Ga.;  Waters  Normal  Insti- 
tute, Winton,  N.  C.;  Western  College,  Macon,  Mo., 
and  Manning  Bible  Institute,  Cairo,  111. 

Then  and  Now 

In  1860  this  country  had  4,444,800  Negroes,  in 
1910,  9,828,294.  Since  1900  they  have  increased 
11.3  per  cent.  The  percentage  is,  however,  de- 
creasing, for  in  1900  it  was  18  and  in  1890,  13.5 
per  cent.  Aside  from  immigration  the  whites  are 
believed  to  have  increased  15  per  cent. 

In  the  South  in  1910  the  whites  constituted 
69.9  per  cent,  and  the  Negroes  28.8,  as  compared 
with  63.9  and  36.1  in  1880.  The  whites  in  the 
South  have  since  1880  gained  6 per  cent,  and  the 
Negroes  lost  6.2  in  these  thirty  years. 

The  condition  of  the  Negroes  in  1862  and  since 
then  has  constituted  a problem  which  we  have 
helped  to  solve  by  the  creation  of  Christian  leader- 
ship. The  Negroes  in  Virginia  in  1910  constituted 
32.6  per  cent,  of  the  population;  in  North  Caro- 
lina, 31.6;  South  Carolina,  55.2;  Georgia,  45.1; 
Florida,  41  per  cent.;  Kentucky,  11.4  per  cent.; 
Tennessee,  21.7  per  cent.;  Alabama,  42.5  per  cent.; 
Mississippi,  56.2  per  cent.;  Arkansas,  28.1  per 
cent.;  Louisiana,  53.1  per  cent.;  Texas,  17.7  per 
cent. 


10 


In  all  these  States  our  schools  are  located,  and 
the  Christian  graduates  from  these  schools  will 
help  to  save  the  great  mass  of  colored  people,  and 
reap  one  of  the  most  valuable  harvests  the  South 
has  ever  had. 

We  have  expended  for  Negro  education  during 
these  fifty  years  more  than  five  million  dollars, 
and  of  this  amount  fully  $1,290,000  is  represented 
in  land  and  equipment. 

Since  1878  the  Woman’s  American  Baptist 
Home  Missionary  Society  has  co-operated  with 
the  American  Baptist  Home  Mission  Society  in 
generous  provision  for  the  salaries  of  teachers  in 
these  schools.  This  organization  has  had  515  dif- 
ferent teachers,  matrons  and  missionaries  working 
either  in  the  Negro  schools  or  in  other  depart- 
ments of  missionary  service  in  the  South.  This 
number  includes  those  supported  by  the  present 
society  and  the  societies  now  incorporated  with 
that  which  has  its  headquarters  at  Chicago.  Dur- 
ing this  time  the  total  contributions  of  these 
societies  of  the  women  of  the  North  have  been 
$1,045,200. 

The  educational  trust  funds  amount  to  $312,- 
444.93  and  the  designated  funds  total  $49,377.60. 

Southern  Harvests 

The  Society  has  steadily  adhered  to  the  train- 
ing of  the  colored  people  as  ministers  and  teach- 
ers, and  for  many  years  has  prepared  students 
for  medicine,  law,  pharmacy,  business  trades 
and  home  making.  Industrial  education  has 
been  gradually  increasing.  We  have  combined 
the  Christian  culture  of  the  heart  with  the  de- 
velopment of  the  mind  and  the  training  of  the 
hand  so  that  these  schools  may  give  an  education 
for  efficiency  that  shall  make  the  students  receiv- 
ing instruction  sufficient  unto  every  good  work. 

We  have  asked  the  heads  of  these  institutions 
to  tell  us  what  proportion  of  their  graduates  have 
made  a moral  failure  of  life,  and  these  are  some  of 


11 


the  replies:  Ainericus  Institute,  1 per  cent.; 

Hartshorn  Memorial  College,  2 per  cent.;  Virginia 
Union  University,  1 per  cent.  Dr.  Brown,  princi- 
pal of  Waters  Normal  Institute,  says:  “We  do  not 
know  of  one  of  our  graduates  who  has  gone  down 
to  shame.  All  are  living  upright  lives,  with  the 
exception  of  two.  One  of  our  young  men  who 
graduated  went  to  Boston,  recently,  and  we  have 
not  been  able  to  locate  him.”  No  graduate  of 
Jackson  College  has  made  a moral  failure.  Houston 
Academy  reports  per  cent.;  Jeruel  Academy 
4 per  cent.;  Roger  Williams  University,  2 per 
cent.;  Shaw  University,  less  than  1 per  cent. 
President  Hope,  of  Morehouse  College,  writes:  “I 
have  gone  carefully  over  the  names  of  all  grad- 
uates, living  and  dead,  and  I should  say  that  3 per 
cent,  would  cover  the  moral  failures.  By  ‘moral 
failures’  I do  not  mean  in  every  instance  absolute 
shipwrecks.”  Less  than  4 per  cent,  of  the  grad- 
uates of  Arkansas  Baptist  College  have  failed 
morally,  and  only  one  graduate  from  Howe  Insti- 
tute. No  one  who  had  graduated  from  Thompson 
Institute  has  been  known  to  make  a moral  failure. 
At  Spelman  Seminary  a very  careful  biographical 
record  is  kept  of  every  graduate,  and  only  4 per 
cent,  are  known  to  have  failed,  while  Tidewater 
Institute  reports  2 per  cent.  A large  number  have 
come  to  considerable  fortune.  Howe  Institute 
reports  4 per  cent.;  Thompson  Institute,  5 per 
cent.;  Roger  Williams,  1 per  cent. 

President  Hope  knows  of  no  graduates  who 
would  be  regarded  as  rich  Negroes,  and  says  that 
by  far  the  greater  number  have  not  gone  into 
money-making  primarily,  although  it  is  a fact 
that  most  of  the  men  own  their  own  homes  and 
are  in  very  good  condition.  Some  have  money 
enough  to  support  them  without  any  vocation. 

Nine  graduates  of  Coleman  Academy  have  be- 
come well-to-do.  A large  number  of  Jackson  Col- 
lege students  and  former  graduates  own  their 
own  homes  and  are  doing  well. 

Virginia  Union  University  reports  fifty  grad- 


12 


uates  who  have  a considerable  fortune,  that  is, 
from  one  to  five  hundred  acres,  and  a comfortable 
home.  Ten,  and  possibly  more,  have  property  to 
the  value  of  $20,000  to  $25,000. 

Two  hundred  who  received  instruction  at  Shaw 
University  are  worth  $5,000  each,  and  eleven  are 
worth  not  less  than  an  average  of  $25,000. 

The  Home  Makers 

Spelman  Seminary  presents  very  interesting  and 
complete  statistics,  and  while  recent  investiga- 
tions would  probably  be  more  favorable,  we  will 
quote  from  the  figures  gathered  in  1905.  At  that 
time  123  ex-students,  87  graduates  and  36  under- 
graduates answered,  of  which  57  per  cent,  were 
married,  and  reported  joint  property.  The  aver- 
age length  of  time  since  leaving  school  was  7% 
years.  Eighty-nine  per  cent,  report  property 
owned  in  their  families;  43  per  cent,  real  estate 
in  their  own  names,  of  an  average  value  of  $820; 
83  per  cent,  report  personal  property  in  their  own 
names,  average  value,  $392;  53  per  cent,  report 
personal  cash  savings,  average  value,  $204;  37  per 
cent,  own  homes  and  19  per  cent,  were  buying 
homes.  The  average  property  owned  by  these 
former  students  was  valued  at  $759;  the  maxi- 
mum value  reported,  $5,350,  and  the  minimum, 
$15. 

Among  the  300  or  more  girls  coming  from  out- 
side of  Atlanta,  and  boarding  the  same  year  on 
the  Spelman  campus,  the  following  surprising  sta- 
tistics were  obtained:  70.5  per  cent,  of  the  fami- 

lies from  which  these  girls  came  owned  homes; 
10.5  per  cent,  of  the  families  were  buying  homes, 
and  19  per  cent,  of  the  families  lived  in  rented 
houses.  Of  approximately  250  day  pupils,  43  per 
cent,  of  the  families  owned  homes;  10  per  cent, 
were  buying  homes,  and  47  per  cent,  were  renting 
houses. 


13 


Deserved  Leadership 

From  Virginia  Union  University  100  have  be- 
come leaders  in  their  State;  3 are  lawyers,  8 
physicians,  and  some  preachers  have  also  be- 
come successful  in  insurance  and  banking.  Among 
the  graduates  and  students  of  the  University 
who  hold  prominent  positions  as  the  heads  of 
normal  schools,  church  organizations,  pro- 
fessors in  colleges,  etc.,  may  be  mentioned  Booker 
T.  Washington,  who  received  the  last  year  of  his 
education  at  this  school  when  it  was  located 
in  Washington.  Twenty-six  others  hold  positions 
of  great  responsibility  in  educational  institutions. 
Four  are  prominent  as  editors  of  Negro  papers, 
and  4 have  written  a dozen  popular  books  on  the 
race  question.  One  is  the  American  Consul  at  St. 
Thomas. 

From  Waters  Normal  Institute  5 graduates  are 
the  pastors  of  strong  churches  in  large  cities,  1 is 
a missionary  to  Africa,  6 are  successful  physicians, 
3 are  lawyers,  making  a fair  living,  and  48  have 
taught  in  public  schools,  while  many  of  the  un- 
dergraduates are  also  teachers. 

Jackson  College  has  sent  forth  a large  number 
of  ministers,  3 lawyers,  4 physicians,  53  teachers 
and  3 presidents  of  colleges  and  principals  of 
academies. 

From  Tidewater  Institute  have  gone  forth  12 
who  are  prominent  in  the  ministry,  5 in  medicine, 
and  70  in  business  and  teaching. 

Coleman  College  has  19  graduates  who  have  be- 
come prominent  in  the  ministry,  1 in  law,  4 in 
medicine,  1 is  a postal  clerk  and  1 a parish  super- 
intendent of  education. 

Jeruel  Academy  is  proud  of  4 graduates  who 
have  come  to  leadership  in  the  ministry,  1 in  law, 
3 in  medicine,  and  Morehouse  College  reports  92 
graduates  having  become  ministers,  2 lawyers,  19 
physicians,  and  87  teachers. 

President  Meserve,  of  Shaw  University,  reports 
that  “of  those  who  are  now  in  school  18  are  study- 


14 


ing  for  the  ministry,  12  law,  121  medicine,  28 
farming,  56  teaching,  and  a long  list  of  our  grad- 
uates, distinguished  among  their  race  and  popular 
with  the  white  people  of  the  South,  are  among  the 
leading  colored  physicians,  lawyers,  teachers, 
principals  and  college  presidents,  and  heads  of 
charitable  institutions.” 

Ninety-four  graduates  of  Spelman  Seminary 
have  become  teachers.  We  have  been  concerned 
in  our  present  statements  with  graduates  only; 
but  it  should  be  remembered  that  the  great  major- 
ity of  students  attending  these  schools,  although 
they  do  not  graduate,  become  active  in  business, 
in  teaching,  and  in  the  ministry. 

The  Open  Doors 

We  have  not  been  able  to  close  the  doors  to 
any  pupils  who  wish  to  receive  an  education  in 
a Christian  atmosphere,  and  in  several  of  these 
institutions,  in  order  that  teachers  may  qual- 
ify for  the  State  examinations,  we  have  estab- 
lished training  schools,  where  the  future  in- 
structors of  colored  children  might  have  practice 
in  teaching  in  the  various  grades.  This  has 
been  especially  true  in  the  schools  located  in 
the  large  centers.  And  all  who  visit  these  schools 
are  impressed  with  the  facilities  which  we  have 
been  able  to  furnish,  with  the  thorough  instruc- 
tion that  is  given,  and  with  the  immense  contribu- 
tions which  this  Society  has  made  for  the  educa- 
tion of  the  Negro  race.  Thousands  of  well  quali- 
fied teachers  have  gone  forth  from  our  schools  into 
the  country  districts,  where  each  has  been  the 
center  of  an  influence  that  cannot  be  destroyed. 
In  many  of  the  communities  where  these  teachers 
have  gone,  neighborhood  life  has  been  transformed 
and  almost  transfigured  by  the  new  ideals  which 
our  Christian  pupils  have  brought  to  parents  and 
their  children. 

Germany  justifies  her  vast  expenditure  for  edu- 
cation because  the  system  produces  for  the 
crises  of  the  empire  the  millionth  man,  the  Bis- 


15 


inarck  ox-  the  Vou  Moltke,  whose  leadership  can 
guide  and  save  the  Fatherland. 

A distinguished  American  has  remarked  that 
Booker  T.  Washington  was  worth  all  the  money 
given  for  Negro  education. 

Wise  Guides 

What  better  can  we  do  for  the  men  of  the  col- 
ored race  than  to  train  them  for  Christian  civic 
and  industrial  leadership,  teaching  them  not  only 
law,  medicine,  theology  and  literature,  but  how 
to  make  their  furniture,  their  houses  and  their 
gardens? 

What  better  education  can  be  given  a Negro 
girl  than  how  to  study  and  teach  the  Bible,  how 
to  cook,  to  make  her  hats  and  clothes,  and  keep 
her  house  in  order? 

When  a youth  who  lives  in  the  “shadow  of  one 
blue  hill”  climbs  the  hill,  sees  from  its  top  the 
distant  school  house  and  goes  forth  to  its  gifts, 
he  returns  to  make  life  broad  and  deep  and  h’gh 
on  the  acres  which  he  owns. 

The  aspiration  of  colored  youths  for  leadership 
among  their  people  was  deeply  impressed  upon 
me  in  a conversation  I once  had  with  a Negro 
student. 

When  I asked  what  he  intended  to  do  after  he 
left  school,  he  said,  “Be  an  engineer.” 

“A  civil  engineerP”  I inquired. 

“No,  sir,”  he  answered. 

“A  mechanical  engineerP” 

“No,  sir.” 

“An  electrical  engineerP” 

“No,  sir.” 

With  the  other  departments  of  engineering  I 
knew  he  was  not  familiar,  and  so  I ventured  as 
a last  question: 

“What  kind  of  an  engineer  do  you  intend  to 
becomeP” 


16 


And  he  replied,  with  a flash  in  his  eye,  “A 
chief  engineer.” 

I learned  later  that  he  was  working  hard  as 
a fireman  and  hoped  soon  to  secure  a license  as 
a stationary  engineer. 

Christian  leadership  has  been  our  goal.  In- 
deed the  world  has  long  since  climbed  above 
the  mesa  on  which  Dr.  Johnson  stood  when  he 
cried  with  the  plaudits  of  his  generation,  “Edu- 
cation is  needed  solely  for  the  embellishment  of 
life.” 

As  in  foreign  missions,  so  in  home  missions,  our 
effort  is  to  create  leadership  through  Christian 
schools.  We  cannot  handicap  the  Negro  race  and 
then  ask  it  to  equal  us  who  are  not  handicapped. 

Twenty  years  ago  a colored  boy  walked  a long 
distance  to  one  of  our  schools,  and  four  months 
later,  when  he  returned  home  for  the  Christmas 
holidays,  hardly  able  to  read  and  write,  the  dea- 
cons of  the  church  insisted  on  calling  him  “Pro- 
fessor.” His  head,  however,  was  not  turned,  and 
after  years  of  diligent  study  he  has  become  one 
of  the  leaders  of  his  race,  long  occupied  a promi- 
nent pulpit,  and  has  recently  been  chosen  as  the 
head  of  an  institution  which  has  600  students. 

Our  experience  in  the  study  of  our  work  brings 
us  frequently  to  a comparison  of  the  old  and  the 
new. 

The  first  address  I gave  in  the  South  was  before 
a great  congregation  of  Negro  Baptists.  One  of  the 
thousand  present,  an  old  man,  who  had  been  a 
slave,  with  his  aged  wife  standing  by  his  side, 
said  to  me,  “My  brother,  I very  much  enjoyed 
the  rendition  of  your  pungent  points.”  Later,  I 
learned  that  his  son  was  taking  a graduate  course 
in  a northern  university  in  preparation  for 
teaching  a Home  Mission  school,  and  that  he  pos- 
sesses an  excellent  knowledge  of  the  English 
idiom. 


17 


Southern  Investments 

The  organization  of  the  Negro  Baptists  in 
Association,  State  and  National  Conventions, 
under  leadership  of  great  ability,  displays  tal- 
ents that  we  should  not  minimize.  Indeed  in 
all  the  communities  in  the  South,  where 
Negroes  live,  and  they  live  everywhere,  and  in  all 
the  Negro  colonies  in  our  Northern  cities,  if  you 
search  out  the  men  and  women  of  prominence  who 
are  in  the  van  of  educational,  social  and  religious 
activities,  you  will  find  that  they  with  few  excep- 
tions have  been  students  in  the  mission  schools  of 
the  South. 

The  Negroes  are  not  a headless  host.  They  have 
men  of  consummate  ability  to  lead  them,  as  their 
national,  district  and  state  societies  show,  and 
we  are  proud  of  them  all. 

The  women  of  the  race  also  have  been  of  late 
active  in  forming  national  women’s  clubs,  which 
are  interested  in  improvements  of  every  kind,  and 
in  the  various  departments  of  esthetics.  An  or- 
ganization known  as  the  Neighborhood  Union, 
whose  first  society  was  established  at  Atlanta, 
with  the  wife  of  President  John  Hope  as  its  first 
president,  is  multiplying  its  life  through  other 
societies  in  the  South. 

Mr.  Washington  asserts  that  the  Negroes  pay 
taxes  upon  one  twenty-fourth  of  all  the  soil  of 
Virginia;  that  in  the  counties  east  of  the  Blue 
Ridge  Mountains,  they  pay  taxes  upon  one-four- 
teenth of  the  soil,  and  in  three  counties  of  Vir- 
ginia, on  one-fourth.  He  asserts  that  in  Georgia 
the  Negroes  pay  taxes  on  $28,586,000  worth  of 
farm  property  in  addition  to  large  possessions  of 
town  and  city  lots.  He  intimates  that  “If  the 
white  man  does  not  pay  taxes  on  all  of  his,  the 
Negro,  who  learns  quickly  from  the  white  man, 
probably  does  not  pay  on  all  of  his.”  He  also 
asserts  that  in  the  Southern  States  the  Negroes 
own  an  amount  of  land  equal  to  the  combined 
physical  territory  of  the  kingdoms  of  Holland 

18 


and  Belgium,  and  have  in  the  United  States  $600,- 
000,000  worth  of  property.  They  own  In  the 
Southern  States  alone  nearly  10,000  dry  goods 
and  grocery  stores,  200  drug  stores,  and  56  banks. 
They  have  35,000  Sunday-Schools,  32,000  min- 
isters, 35,000  churches,  and  fully  $56,000,000 
worth  of  church  property. 

The  burden  of  the  white  man  is  not  only  in 
Africa,  South  America  and  Asia,  but  it  is  in  the 
south  land,  helping  the  black  man  carry  his  bur- 
den, for  the  black  man  has  a burden. 

While  the  Negroes  pay  considerable  taxes  on 
property  which  they  own,  we  must  not  forget  the 
economic  axiom  that  the  man  who  pays  the  rent 
for  a house  and  farm,  or  rents  land  for  tillage, 
also  pays  the  taxes  on  this  property,  for  the  tax  is 
always  included  in  the  rent. 

It  took  a thousand  years  to  tame  our  fore- 
fathers; and,  with  nearly  ten  million  Negroes 
among  us  whose  ancestors  were  more  than  two 
hundred  years  in  slavery  and  who  with  their 
fathers  have  been  less  than  fifty  years  free,  we 
should  be  much  encouraged  that  within  half  a 
century  these  ten  million  Negroes  have  reached 
a condition  where  69.6  per  cent,  of  their  race  can 
both  read  and  write.  Principal  Washington  com- 
pares these  attainments  with  20  per  cent,  in  Sicily, 
40  per  cent,  in  Spain,  30  per  cent,  in  Russia  and 
10  per  cent,  in  Portugal. 

The  Cost  of  Progress 

The  race  was  helped  in  many  ways  by  slavery. 
Major  Moulton  said  recently  at  Carnegie  Hall, 
New  York  City,  “I  am  glad  my  ancestors  were 
brought  from  Africa  to  the  United  States,  where 
they  received  Christianity  in  many  instances  from 
their  slave  holders,  and  to  the  land  where  their 
condition  has  become  so  greatly  improved.” 

The  progress  of  these  people  in  the  South, 
where  they  prefer  to  live,  can  only  be  explained 
by  the  fact  that  in  a Christian  environment  they 
had  one  language,  one  religion,  one  country  and 


19 


form  of  government  and  the  same  kind  of  educa- 
tion. 

In  accomplishing  these  ends  mission  schooli 
have  had  considerable  part.  These  number  about 
130,  have  approximately  40,000  pupils,  2,400 
teachers,  and  represent  an  investment  of  $14,- 
000,000,  with  an  annual  outlay  of  $2,100,000. 

Hampton  and  Tuskegee  Institutes,  and  Atlanta 
University,  are  the  three  strongest  schools  sup- 
ported by  independent  Boards  of  Trustees. 

The  scores  of  Negro  autobiographies  which  we 
have  assembled  make  stimulating  reading.  One 
man  recalls  the  day  when  he  was  inspired  to  get 
an  education  by  watching  an  educated  pig  at  a 
county  fair.  He  was  eighteen  years  old  and  could 
not  read  or  write,  but  he  went  home  saying:  “If 

that  pig  can  get  an  education,  I will  get  an 
education.”  Shaw  University  took  him  in  hand, 
and  he  has  spent  a long  life  as  a missionary  in 
Liberia. 

Another  graduate  as  a lawyer  faced  hardships 
in  Chicago.  While  shoveling  coal  from  a side- 
walk to  earn  his  office  rent,  a white  man  asked 
him  if  he  knew  of  a Negro  lawyer.  He  replied 
that  he  did,  and  that  the  inquirer  would  surely 
find  him  in  his  office  a mile  away.  When  the 
stranger  disappeared  around  the  corner,  the  young 
Negro  dropped  his  shovel,  ran  to  his  office  by  an- 
other street,  and  was  sitting  in  his  chair,  and 
suitably  dressed,  when  the  white  man  appeared. 
The  next  day  our  graduate  received  $25  as  his 
first  fee  and  has  since  prospered. 

Another  writes:  “I  was  a hard  proposition 

when  the  president  took  me  in  hand,  but  he  used 
the  chisel  of  education  on  me  faithfully  and  at 
last  brought  me  into  the  proper  shape.” 

Culture  and  Service 

It  must  be  remembered  also  that  a large  pro- 
portion of  the  7,000  pupils  in  our  schools  are 
studying  the  elementary  branches  and  do  not  pur- 


20 


sue  their  studies  to  the  period  of  graduation,  yet 
in  this  brief  period  they  become  disciples  of 
progress  and  are  evangelists  to  bring  to  their  rela- 
tives and  friends  the  proper  conceptions  of  reli- 
gion and  education  which  their  teachers  have 
given  to  them.  The  pupil  goes  home  and  realizes 
that  life  leads  somewhere  and  that  his  education 
makes  him  a trustee  to  his  race. 

The  Negro  finds  opponents  among  his  people, 
but  they  are  those  who  are  entrenched  in  super- 
stition, immorality  and  prejudice,  and  these  dis- 
integrating forces  become  decadent  among  all 
belated  races  under  the  influence  of  religion  and 
education. 

From  an  inspiring  evening  recently  spent  in 
Carnegie  Hall,  in  New  York  City,  where  Hamp- 
ton Institute  gave  a good  account  of  its  steward- 
ship, I returned  home  with  my  mind  filled  with 
fresh  proofs  of  a training  that  combines  both  cul- 
ture and  efficiency.  I realized  that  evening  that 
the  higher  education  is  one  that  lifts  men  higher, 
and  the  highest  education  raises  men  to  heights 
from  which  they  go  down  as  Jesus  did,  to  work 
for  a world  that  can  be  spiritually  conquered  only 
by  the  industry  and  patience  of  those  whose  hearts 
are  pure  and  whose  hands  are  clean.  I saw  that 
night,  as  I had  never  seen  before,  that  the  higher 
education  is  that  which  gives  its  possessor  a 
higher  lifting  power,  and  that  a liberal  educa- 
tion is  an  education  that  makes  a man’s  life  a 
generous  contribution  to  his  day  and  race.  In 
terms  of  character  it  makes  him  efficient  in  the 
conquests  of  sin  in  his  own  life;  in  terms  of 
efficiency  it  makes  him  sufficient  for  every  good 
work  in  uplifting  others. 

The  Gifts  of  Love 

We  should  all  do  honor  to  the  teachers  who 
have  gone  from  the  North,  and  especially  from 
New  England,  to  teach  the  Negroes.  The  service 
at  first  was  glorified  in  the  North,  and  mini- 
mized in  the  South,  but  it  is  now  appreciated 


21 


more  and  more  among  the  white  neighbor* 
of  our  virile  institutions.  The  Negroes  have 
long  since  risen  up  to  call  them  blessed,  and 
Dr.  DuBois  has  said,  “These  Christian  teach- 
ers have  gone  forth  in  the  ninth  crusade.”  One 
has  a strange  feeling  in  his  heart  when  he  hears 
an  enemy  of  these  schools  say  that  the  Negroes 
are  incapable  of  education  and  in  the  same  con- 
versation, a few  minutes  later,  hears  him  assert 
that  educated  Negroes  are  dangerous  to  society 
and  the  jails  are  filled  with  them.  Such  opinions 
do  not  weigh  an  ounce  in  the  balance  against  those 
noble  expressions  to  the  contrary  which  are  con- 
stantly and  freely  being  given  by  the  intelligent 
people  of  the  South. 

An  entire  hour  might  be  spent  in  calling  the 
names  of  consecrated  souls:  Dr.  Charles  M.  Corey, 
with  34  years  of  service;  Dr.  G.  M.  P.  King,  now 
rounding  out  47  years  of  labor;  Dr.  H.  M.  Tupper, 
28  years  president  of  Shaw  University,  which  he 
established;  Dr.  D.  W.  Phillips,  26  years  in  the 
harness;  Dr.  L.  B.  Tefft,  just  laying  down  the  bur- 
den after  38  years  of  fruitful  toil;  President  L. 

G.  Barrett,  16  years  at  Jackson  College;  Miss  Car- 
rie V.  Dyer,  in  continuous  service  since  1870,  and 
those  noble  women,  Miss  S.  B.  Packard  and  Miss 

H.  E.  Giles,  founders  of  Spelman  Seminary,  who, 
after  many  years  of  unstinted  labors,  fell  at  their 
post,  rejoicing  in  what  they  had  been  permitted 
to  achieve. 

To-day  these  institutions  are  administered  by 
men  of  exceptional  ability  and  taught  by  teachers 
of  fine  mind  and  heart. 

The  tradition  that  a black  man  carried  our 
Saviour’s  cross  may  be  supported  by  scanty  schol- 
arship, but  it  is  true  that  many  white  men  North 
and  South  have  won  their  crown  by  helping  the 
black  man  carry  his  cross. 

These  teachers  have  labored  with  rare  devotion 
in  the  yielding  clay  which  has  often  broken  on 
the  potter’s  wheel  till  they  have  patiently  made 
it  whole  again.  Their  names  are  in  the  books 


22 


that  the  angels  write,  and  will  appear  in  letters 
of  gold  when  the  history  of  Negro  education  is 
finally  written.  The  South  has  treated  these  Chris- 
tian educators  kindly  in  later  years,  and  many  of 
our  mission  schools  have  long  had  trustees  and 
friends  among  the  Southern  people,  who  have  al- 
ways ministered  to  these  angels  in  their  midst 
and  given  to  them  the  cup  of  encouragement  in 
the  Master’s  name. 

Two  names  of  our  Superintendents  of  Edu- 
cation loom  large  before  our  eyes.  They  performed 
well  their  labors  for  our  schools.  Dr.  Malcolm 
MacVicar  for  ten  years  shaped  methods  of  work 
and  courses  of  study;  Dr.  George  Sale  followed 
with  the  extension  of  the  curriculum  and  enlarged 
the  equipment.  His  untimely  death  on  Jan.  22nd, 
1912,  prevented  his  able  review  of  our  work. 

Like  Dr.  MacVicar,  Dr.  Sale  addressed  himself 
with  patience  and  wisdom  to  his  labors  and  was 
able  to  make  his  ideals  attractive  to  the  presi- 
dents, principals  and  teachers  of  our  schools.  He 
showed  initiative  and  tactfulness,  which  won  and 
kept  for  him  a growing  circle  of  friends. 

His  sound  judgment,  conservatism,  and  wide 
acquaintance  with  the  Negro  problem  gave  weight 
to  such  recommendations  as  he  felt  it  right  to  pre- 
sent to  the  various  Boards  and  Foundations  which 
have  deeply  at  heart  the  welfare  of  the  colored 
people. 

Indeed,  he  did  his  work  so  well  for  our  Society 
that  his  reputation  became  national.  No  better 
proof  can  be  given  of  the  high  estimation  in 
which  he  was  held  by  those  who  have  made  an 
expert  study  of  the  Negro  problem  than  his  selec- 
tion by  President  Taft  as  one  of  the  Commission- 
ers to  Liberia. 


A Wider  Field 

What  our  Society  has  expended  in  Negro  edu- 
cation, however,  does  not  represent  the  total 
contributions  of  Northern  Baptists  for  this  ob- 
ject. Our  States  are  the  happy  hunting  grounds 


23 


through  which  have  wandered  Negro  pastors  and 
teachers,  and  the  amount  of  money  which  has 
been  collected  from  individuals,  Sunday  Schools, 
Young  People’s  Societies,  and  churches,  consti- 
tute a vast  sum. 

The  deacons  of  the  Clarendon  Street  Church 
were  importuned  so  frequently  for  gifts  to 
churches  and  schools  by  their  Negro  brethren,  that 
on  one  occasion,  when  a preacher  came  before 
them  and  asked  for  the  privilege  of  a collection, 
almost  worn  out  by  the  frequent  appeals,  they 
asked  the  colored  brother  why  the  Clarendon 
Street  Church  was  always  the  first  place  in  New 
England  to  which  the  Negro  Baptist  in  the  South 
came.  The  preacher  instantly  replied,  “When  we 
go  hunting,  we  go  where  we  know  the  ducks  are.” 

The  work,  however,  accomplished  by  this  Soci- 
ety for  the  Negroes  has  not  been  education  alone, 
and  in  the  South  alone,  but  has  long  embraced 
evangelistic  and  missionary  endeavors  in  many 
States  in  the  North  and  West.  This  is  conducted 
through  co-operation  with  Western  conventions 
and  is  very  widespread.  Last  year  forty-two  mis- 
sionaries in  eleven  States  were  employed  and 
approximately  $10,000  was  given  by  this  Society 
for  their  salaries.  A considerable  amount  was 
paid  also  by  the  various  State  conventions  with 
which  we  are  in  co-operation.  In  several  East- 
ern States,  assistance  is  given  by  State  conven- 
tions and  State  missionary  societies  to  the  Negro 
Baptists. 

The  new  era  institute  work  has  been  con- 
ducted jointly  with  fruitful  results  in  several 
Southern  States,  where  the  Home  Mission  Board 
of  the  Southern  Baptist  Convention,  the  White 
and  Negro  State  conventions  and  this  Society  co- 
operated. Gradually  the  Southern  conventions 
withdrew  from  the  work,  believing  that  they  could 
spend  their  funds  to  better  advantage  by  making 
direct  contributions  to  the  National  Baptist  Con- 
vention. Our  Society  continues  the  joint  arrange- 
ment at  the  present  time  in  Virginia  and  Georgia. 


24 


W*  believe  that  this  work  is  all  important,  and 
may  well  be  restored  to  its  former  dimensions. 

The  Negroes  themselves,  during  these  fifty  years 
have  appreciated  our  efforts  on  their  behalf,  and 
during  the  last  twelve  years  alone  have  paid  into 
the  school  treasuries  of  our  various  institutions 
more  than  sixteen  hundred  thousand  dollars  for 
board  and  tuition  charges.  This  makes  two  points 
clear:  That  their  parents  and  friends  are  coming 
to  financial  strength,  which  makes  possible  the 
education  of  the  younger  generation,  and  also 
that  a multitude  of  young  men  and  women  are 
eager  to  possess  ample  preparation  for  the  work 
of  life. 


Our  Task 

We  need  to  remember  that  the  task  in  which 
we  are  engaged  may  be  a very  long  one,  for  it 
may  take  as  many  decades  to  solve  this  problem  as 
it  took  to  make  it.  How  long,  therefore,  shall  we 
patiently  pour  our  missionary  treasures  of  money 
and  of  life  into  this  stream  P We  answer,  till  our 
work  is  done  and  others  come  to  supplement  our 
labors. 

What  now  is  our  part,  as  we  begin  another  half 
century P Shall  its  end  still  find  our  successors 
toiling  with  this  problem  that  now  stretches  into 
the  future? 

We  need  frequent  conferences  with  our  South- 
ern white  brethren,  for  it  is  a gain  to  talk  to- 
gether as  we  climb  the  upward  path  and  look 
down  on  both  sides  of  the  mountain  of  Negro 
education. 


Southern  Sentiment 

It  is  a joy  to  know  that  the  best  sentiment 
in  the  South  to-day,  where  the  tide  is  rising  fast, 
demands  not  only  an  education  for  the  masses 
of  the  colored  people,  but  that  higher  educational 
institutions  shall  be  developed  to  supplement  the 
denominational  work,  both  in  order  to  provide 


25 


teachers  for  the  rural  schools  and  to  train  the 
exceptional  man  and  woman.  Dr.  Curry,  Bishop 
Galloway,  President  Mitchell  of  the  University  of 
South  Carolina,  Chancellor  Hill  of  the  University 
of  Georgia,  President  Mullins  of  our  Seminary  in 
Louisville,  Dr.  John  E.  White  and  a host  of  others 
have  all  spoken  the  same  strong  message.  The 
reports  of  the  Southern  Education  Board  leave  no 
doubt  on  this  subject. 

Our  Southern  Baptist  leaders  warn  us  that  we 
must  not  be  over-impressed  by  the  railings  of 
their  politicians  against  the  Negroes.  Indeed  it 
is  a common  observation  that  when  in  politics 
or  religion  men  throw  mud  at  their  fellows  they 
simply  prove  that  they  live  on  the  muddy  side  of 
the  street. 

But  important  changes  are  imminent  in  the 
South.  The  growing  efforts  on  behalf  of  the 
Negroes  in  the  organizing  of  Young  Men’s  Chris- 
tian Associations  led  by  the  Southern  white  stu- 
dents; the  establishing  of  fellowships  in  Southern 
universities  for  the  study  of  the  race  problem; 
the  personal  Christian  work  which  the  Presby- 
terians of  Louisville  are  doing  through  the  Rev. 
John  Little,  and  which  the  Central  Presbyterian 
Church  of  Atlanta  is  undertaking  in  its  recently 
instituted  playground  and  industrial  institutional 
efforts  among  the  ten  thousand  or  more  colored 
people  who  are  crowded  between  the  forks  of 
the  Seaboard  and  Southern  Railways  in  that  city; 
the  higher  education  that  Southern  Methodists 
are  supporting  with  increasing  liberality  under 
a Southern  white  president  at  Paine  College,  at 
Augusta,  Georgia;  these  are  significant  tendencies 
of  Southern  life  to-day,  and  our  Baptist  brethren 
are  doubtless  studying  them  with  the  silent  re- 
solve not  to  be  left  in  the  rear  of  the  new  forces 
that  are  slowly  but  irresistibly  organizing  for  a 
long  campaign.  Their  work  at  first  will  supple- 
ment our  Christian  endeavors  and  in  the  end  will 
probably  lessen  our  commitments  to  this  form  of 
Christian  service,  which  will  naturally  be  trans- 


26 


ferred  to  the  hearts  and  hands  of  white  men  and 
black  who  live  as  neighbors. 

The  Baptist  leaders  in  the  South  are  most  cor 
dial  to  our  efforts  for  the  Negroes. 

Rev.  Hight  C.  Moore,  editor  of  the  Biblical  Re- 
corder, Raleigh,  N.  C.,  in  accepting  his  election 
as  a trustee  of  Shaw  University,  wrote  recently  to 
us,  “I  beg  to  say  that  I appreciate  the  honor 
conferred,  and  will,  to  the  best  of  my  ability,  un- 
dertake the  services  desired.  I am  a great  be- 
liever in  Shaw  University,  past,  present  and 
future.’' 

Recently  we  have  received  letters  from  nearly 
a hundred  of  the  South’s  distinguished  sons,  com- 
mending these  mission  schools  for  the  work  they 
are  doing,  in  solving  the  race  problem,  in  pro- 
viding the  kind  of  leaders  the  Negroes  need,  and 
in  furnishing  the  exact  education  that  these  gen- 
tlemen delight  to  have  them  receive. 

A National  Task 

Our  brethren  of  the  South  are  exhorting  each 
other  to  renewed  Christian  work  for  the  Negroes. 

Ex-Governor  Northen  of  Georgia  has  said, 
“What  has  organized  Christianity  at  the  South 
done  for  the  spiritual  needs  of  the  Negro? 
Sometimes,  in  my  more  compassionate  moments, 
it  has  occurred  to  me  that,  possibly,  the  Negroes 
at  the  South  belong  to  that  class  of  human- 
ity the  Master  had  in  mind,  when  He  said:  ‘For 
I was  an  hungered,  and  ye  gave  me  no  meat; 
I was  thirsty,  and  ye  gave  me  no  drink;  I was  a 
stranger,  and  yet  took  me  not  in;  naked,  and  ye 
clothed  me  not;  sick,  and  in  prison,  and  ye  vis- 
ited me  not.’  ” 

The  following  noble  lines  are  an  extract  from 
a committee  report  written  by  Dr.  Edwin  M.  Po- 
teat,  Chairman,  and  adopted  by  the  Southern  Bap- 
tist Convention: 

“Our  commission  ‘Unto  the  uttermost  parts  of 


27 


the  earth’  is  not  China,  or  Thibet,  or  the  heart 
of  Africa;  but  the  Negro  quarters  in  your  town, 
your  village,  your  plantation. 

“The  Negro  here  is  a severer  test  of  our  loy- 
alty to  Christ  than  the  Chinaman  in  Canton;  and 
we  cannot  maintain  our  Christian  consistency 
while  we  glow  with  generous  piety  and  melt  to 
tears  upon  the  recital  of  the  blessing  of  God  upon 
our  work  for  Negroes  in  Africa  or  Brazil,  and 
freeze  to  hardness  on  seeing  with  our  own  eyes 
the  pitiful  destitution  of  the  Negroes  here  at 
home. 

“The  love  of  all  men  is  a thrilling  sentiment, 
but  it  often  suffers  a sudden  blight  by  the  finding 
of  a particular  individual  on  our  doorstep.  And 
we  must  remember  that  almost  if  not  quite  the 
severest  indictment  Jesus  ever  launched,  He 
launched  against  a man  who  despised  a certain 
loathsome  bundle  of  humanity  laid  at  his  gate, 
full  of  sores.  Our  Lord  said  of  that  man  that  he 
went  to  hell,  which  is  to  say  that  we  must  inter- 
pret our  Christianity  in  terms  of  helpfulness  to- 
ward the  man  next  to  us,  or  we  run  the  risk  of 
forfeiting  the  favor  of  God  upon  our  work  in  the 
ends  of  the  earth.” 

The  Kindly  Feeling 

And  who  can  travel  in  the  South  and  not  ob- 
serve the  kindly  feeling  which  prevails  between 
the  better  classes  of  both  races P It  is  not  in  the 
ability  of  anyone  reared  in  the  North  to  instruct 
intelligently  the  Southern  Baptists  as  to  what 
they  ought  to  do. 

But  every  word  of  exhortation  given  in  the  South 
may  well  be  repeated  in  the  North,  where  preju- 
dice against  the  Negro  we  fear  is  not  growing  less. 
Indeed,  the  Baptists  of  the  Northern  States  may 
well  read  the  burning  utterances  of  our  Southern 
leaders  and  labor  more  zealously  in  our  cities 
for  the  evangelization  of  the  Negro  people,  many 
of  whom  absorb  the  vices  and  not  the  virtues  of 


21 


their  environment.  As  we  read  the  calls  to  serv- 
ice uttered  to  their  brethren  by  these  Southern 
neighbors,  and  meditate  on  their  words  of  praise 
of  our  Christian  schools,  let  us  not  for  an  instant 
imagine  that  the  Baptists  who  have  always  dwelt 
closest  to  the  great  population  of  Negro  people 
have  not  generously  assisted  the  Negro  Baptists 
in  their  Christian  enterprises.  Their  gifts  doubt- 
less have  long  since  passed  the  mark  of  two  mil- 
lion dollars.  Indeed,  almost  every  Negro  church 
has  appealed,  and  not  in  vain,  to  their  Southern 
friends  to  help  build  its  edifice. 


The  Breadth  of  the  Problem 

The  Negro  problem  is  a National  problem  and 
will  never  be  solved  by  the  North  alone  nor  by 
the  South  alone,  but  by  the  North  and  the  South 
together,  working  on  a larger  plane  than  has 
ever  yet  been  devised  and  in  constructive  ways 
that  will  utilize  the  financial  ability,  the  intel' 
lectual  leadership  and  the  moral  power  of  the 
Negro  race;  and  supplementing  this  daily  increas- 
ing endowment  with  the  combined  strength  of 
the  educational  foundations,  Boards  and  Mission- 
ary Societies  along  lines  that  will  ultimately 
fasten  these  institutions  to  the  public  and  re» 
ligious  school  systems  of  the  Southern  States,  and 
will  at  the  same  time  conserve  the  best  traditions 
sacrifices  and  spirit  of  those  who  both  North  and 
South  have  built  their  lives  into  the  growing 
temple  of  Christian  education  that  aims  to  train 
leaders  for  the  race. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  our  Southern  Bap- 
tists and  their  Christian  brethren  of  the  South 
were  so  impoverished,  although  not  disheartened, 
by  the  losses  of  war,  that  it  was  impossible,  how- 
ever strongly  they  were  inclined,  for  them  to  es- 
tablish schools  for  the  improvement  of  those  who 
had  lately  been  their  slaves. 


29 


Lest  We  Forget 

We  should  not  forget,  that  although  our  Bap- 
tist brethren  withdrew  from  co-operation  with 
our  Society  because  of  the  growing  opposition 
to  slavery  of  the  Northern  Baptists,  they  never- 
theless were  interested  in  the  spiritual  life  of 
the  Negroes  and  received  them  in  large  num- 
bers into  the  membership  of  their  churches.  A 
conspicuous  example  of  this  devotion  is  seen  in 
the  service  rendered  by  Dr.  Hyland,  who  while 
president  of  Richmond  College,  was  also  the  pas- 
tor of  a large  colored  church  of  the  city.  The 
unfortunate  racial  alignments  of  the  reconstruc- 
tion period,  however,  partly  broke  the  personal 
contact  that  had  previously  existed;  and  in  the 
brief  political  ascendancy  of  the  Negroes,  feel- 
ings were  engendered  in  the  hearts  of  the  South- 
ern people  which  made  it  easy  for  them,  busy  with 
the  resuscitation  of  their  own  educational  and  re- 
ligious institutions,  to  leave  indefinitely  to  their 
Northern  brethren  the  Christian  education  of  the 
Negroes.  Indeed,  our  Southern  brethren  have  been 
so  busy  till  the  present  hour  with  the  develop- 
ment of  their  own  people  that  they  have  perhaps 
naturally  not  asked  to  co-operate  with  our  Soci- 
ety in  the  maintenance  of  these  numerous  institu- 
tions for  which  it  was  making  ample  provision. 
On  many  occasions,  however,  in  convention  as- 
sembled, they  have  heartily  endorsed  our  work 
for  their  colored  neighbors,  and  we  have  felt  their 
regret  that  the  burden  of  their  Christian  under- 
takings made  it  impossible  for  them  to  assist  us. 
The  willingness  and  ability  with  which  during 
all  these  years  many  of  the  most  prominent  gen- 
tlemen of  the  South  have  served  as  trustees  of 
our  colored  schools  is  surely  a prophecy  of  that 
larger  number  who  some  day  may  feel  it  a privi- 
lege not  only  to  assist  in  the  supervision  of  the 
institutions,  but  also  to  teach  the  colored  pupils 
in  our  classes  and  to  direct  as  presidents  and  prin- 
cipals the  policies  and  destinies  of  these  colleges 
and  institutes. 


30 


The  difficulty  now  encountered  by  the  South, 
which  in  its  new  prosperity  has  again  become 
conscious  of  its  financial  strength,  is  that  it  finds 
a ready-made  system  of  higher  education  pre- 
paring the  colored  youth  for  Christian  leadership, 
while  the  masses,  both  white  and  black,  sorely 
need  the  rudiments  of  learning.  However,  the 
field  is  so  extensive  that  the  problem  cannot  be 
finally  solved  by  eliminating  any  element  that 
makes  for  strength,  but  by  utilizing  all  the  forces 
of  education. 


History  and  Prophecy 

Our  Socity  eagerly  took  its  share  in  the  Chris- 
tian education  of  the  Negroes  when  it  would  have 
been  a crime  against  heaven  not  to  have  begun 
this  work.  The  same  heroism  that  sent  our  sol- 
diers to  fight  for  the  preservation  of  the  Union 
led  men  and  women  to  teach  the  emancipated 
slaves  in  our  Christian  schools.  During  the  past 
fifty  years  the  Baptists  of  the  North  have  invest- 
ed more  than  six  million  dollars  in  carrying  out 
their  part  of  the  great  commission  of  our  Lord, 
but  we  cannot  abandon  these  wards  that  God  has 
given  to  us  until  our  white  brethren  of  the  South 
see  the  vision  of  their  privilege  in  making  their 
personal  contributions  to  these  schools  in  addi- 
tion to  their  sympathies  and  prayers,  or  until 
the  Negroes  themselves,  slowly  coming  to  pros- 
perity and  fortune,  shall  help  to  lift  the  burden, 
and  later  entirely  support  and  supervise  their  own 
institutions. 

The  recent  gifts  of  the  Negro  Baptists  suggest 
that  they  may  embrace  this  privilege  before  the 
white  Baptists  of  belated  vision  respond  to  their 
enlightened  leaders.  We  value  highly  the  numer- 
ous resolutions  of  commendation  of  our  work  for 
the  Negroes  given  by  the  Southern  Baptist  Con- 
vention. These  sentiments  glorify  their  records. 

But  the  Baptist  historian  of  a later  day  may  ex- 
press his  amazement  that  a people  so  enlight- 


31 


ened,  bo  orthodox,  so  generous,  and  showing  such 
commendable  initiative  in  missionary  work  for 
whites  at  home  and  for  Negroes  and  other  races 
abroad,  should  have  watched  for  fifty  years  the 
investment  of  six  million  dollars  by  their  brethren 
of  the  North  in  the  Christian  education  of  the 
Negro  race  among  them  and  not  begged  for  a 
share  in  the  work. 

And  then  surely  he  will  write  these  other  lines: 
“But  as  the  work  of  providing  Christian  education 
entered  upon  its  second  half  century — the  common 
schools  of  the  South  rapidly  extended  an  educa- 
tion to  all  races  and  the  white  Baptists,  coming 
to  great  numbers  and  financial  strength,  followed 
the  wise  advice  of  their  gifted  guides  and  asked 
their  Northern  brethren  to  share  with  them  the 
privilege  of  training  the  Christian  leaders  for 
the  Negro  race;  until  long  before  the  end  of  the 
second  half  century,  the  people  of  the  South,  both 
white  and  black,  so  far  and  generously  supported 
and  promoted  these  mission  schools,  that  the 
Northern  Baptists  turned  their  attention  to  other 
missionary  tasks. 

“The  Negro  race  has  produced  a long  line  of 
worthy  leaders  to  succeed  the  able  men  who  laid 
well  the  foundations  and  directed  the  development 
of  these  Christian  schools  now  manned  and  sup- 
ported by  the  Negroes  themselves.  The  history 
of  this  century  of  the  training  of  a race  mark* 
one  of  the  greatest  achievements  of  the  Christian 
church.” 

And  may  this  prophecy  be  true! 


